Wednesday, the Indian Army said that problems between India and Canada “don’t affect us” and that India will keep its “diplomatic approach and military records with Canada.”
Major General Abhinaya Rai, the Indian Army’s Additional Director General (Strategic Planning), said that Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), General Wayne Eyre, will come to India for the Indo-Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference, which will be held at the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment on September 26 and 27.
The meeting is being held to set up multilateral security partnerships in the area. It is held regularly so that professional armies can work out their differences, build trust, and talk to each other better for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
General James C. McConville, the Chief of Staff of the US Army, and his team will also be at the three events that he and Chief of Indian Army Staff General Manoj Pande will co-host.
Relations between India and Canada got worse after Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the Indian government was behind the killing of a terrorist in India named Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the accusations were “absurd” and “motivated.”
Then, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said that an Indian official had been kicked out of the country, which showed that relations between the two countries were getting worse.
This was followed by a similar move from India on Tuesday, when a top Canadian diplomat was told he had 5 days to leave the country or be kicked out.
After getting a lot of heat, Canada’s Prime Minister seemed to tone down his words on Tuesday, when he said that Canada wasn’t trying to anger India.
In a news meeting, Trudeau said, “We don’t want to start trouble or make things worse. Instead, we want to work with the government of India to make sure everything is clear and that the right steps are taken.”
India said that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the leader of the Khalistan Tiger Force, was a terrorist. On June 18, he was shot dead in a parking lot near a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
